Atomy

//ˈætəmi// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A floating mote or speck of dust. archaic

    "And thicker then in sunne are Atomies, Flew bullets, fier, and slaughtered dead mens cries."

  2. 2
    A skeleton. archaic

    "Hostess Quickly. Ay, come, you starv’d bloodhound. Doll Tearsheet. Goodman death, goodman bones! Hostess Quickly. Thou atomy, thou! Doll Tearsheet. Come, you thin thing! come, you rascal!"

  3. 3
    An indivisible particle. archaic

    "Lastly, it [an Element] is the least part or Atomie of that thing which is made, or proceedeth from it."

  4. 4
    A tiny being; a very small person. archaic

    "[…] she [Queen Mab] comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep;"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Resembling a tiny particle; made up of tiny particles.

    "[…] noble Lesser Alps which were clothed in rich velvety green all the way up and had little atomy Swiss homes perched upon grassy benches along their mist-dimmed heights."

Synonyms

All synonyms
atom

Example

More examples

"And thicker then in sunne are Atomies, Flew bullets, fier, and slaughtered dead mens cries."

Etymology

Etymology 1

See atom.

Etymology 2

Rebracketing of anatomy (“skeleton”) as an atomy.

Etymology 3

From atom + -y.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.